Federal employees are now required to submit reports detailing their work each week, a move spearheaded by Elon Musk and backed by President Donald Trump. Workers who fail to respond will be considered to have resigned.
Musk made the announcement on X, explaining that emails will be sent out asking for a summary of completed tasks. This action follows Trump’s executive order calling for large-scale reductions in the federal workforce, aiming to eliminate inefficiencies.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
The Office of Management and Budget has been instructed to create a plan to reduce government staffing through efficiency measures and attrition. Since the order, agencies have already begun implementing staff cuts, focusing on probationary employees.
To be clear, the bar is very low here.
An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!
Should take less than 5 mins to write. https://t.co/MTL1wyzaxd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
The Office of Personnel Management has ordered widespread layoffs, affecting workers across multiple federal departments, including education, consumer protection and veterans’ affairs. The Pentagon has also confirmed plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary employees, while the Department of Health and Human Services has dismissed about 3,600.
That would be a very impressive and long list indeed for you!
However, the passing grade is literally just “Can you send an email with words that make any sense at all?”.
It’s a low bar. https://t.co/D3AlfUfdeQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
The American Federation of Government Employees has strongly opposed the policy, calling it an unfair burden on workers. Meanwhile, White House officials have voiced support, with communications director Steven Cheung posting a screenshot of the email on X and praising the initiative.
Videos like this are all over TikTok, am I missing something here with the Elon Musk emails?
I feel like listing 5 things you worked on should be easy? I feel like you should be able to easily do that daily? Some jobs you have to. pic.twitter.com/PW8uomuiC4
— Sarah Sansoni (@sarahsansoni) February 23, 2025
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has also uncovered significant government waste, revealing that federal agencies hold millions of active credit cards and have processed billions in spending.
